Huge crowds of robed Muslim pilgrims prayed on Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat on Friday, the climax of the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic forced drastic cuts in numbers for two years.
Groups of worshippers, many holding umbrellas against the fierce sun, recited verses from the Koran on the rocky rise where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have given his final sermon.
Singing joyfully to beating drums, Syrian refugees who fled brutal civil war perform traditional "Arada" dances in neighbouring Jordan, honouring their home culture and earning extra income.
Their performances, featuring traditional robes and whirling swords, have become increasingly popular in Jordan for marking festivities like weddings and parties.
"They add an atmosphere of joy to our celebration," said Fahed Shehadeh, who hired the Bab al-Hara dance troupe in the capital Amman to mark the graduation of his two sons from university.
Joe Biden will hold talks with Saudi Arabia's controversial Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- but only as part of a larger delegation -- when the US president visits the oil-rich nation next week, the White House said Thursday.
"The president will sit down in a bilateral meeting with King Salman and his leadership team. As you know, the crown prince is on that leadership team," John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman at the White House, told reporters.
"So certainly the president will be seeing the crown prince in the context of that larger bilateral discussion."
An EU envoy warned Thursday over the possible mass displacement of Palestinians from a West Bank area at the centre of a protracted legal battle, after a controversial Israeli court ruling.
The European Union's ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, issued the warning as he toured Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, where evictions of Palestinians have increased after they lost a land rights case in Israel's top court on May 4.
Iranian media reports that the Revolutionary Guards had arrested several foreign diplomats for espionage sowed confusion Thursday, after two of the countries concerned denied that their nationals had been detained.
While Poland on Thursday confirmed a scientist was in Iranian custody, Austria strongly rejected reports that any of its diplomats had been held, mirroring an announcement by Britain late Wednesday.
With her husband back at home in Tunisia and draped in a national flag, Laila al-Qarni urges all Muslim women to attend Saudi Arabia's hajj without a male guardian, after the requirement was shelved last year.
The Saudi authorities' move has brought a whole new dimension to the annual pilgrimage.
"Why do women have to be accompanied by a male anyway? Why?" she said, speaking near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in western Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims journeyed from Saudi Arabia's Mecca to a white-tented city in Mina on Thursday as they neared the highlight of the biggest hajj ritual since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Worshippers took buses or walked to Mina, seven kilometres (four miles) from Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, where they circled the imposing black Kaaba at the start of the rituals on Wednesday.
The United Nations Security Council votes Thursday on extending its authorization of aid transfers across Syria's border without approval from Damascus, with Russia seeking a six-month prolongation while Western nations want a full year.
The UN resolution permitting aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa has been in effect since 2014, but is set to expire on Sunday.
Norway and Ireland, two non-permanent members of the 15-country Security Council, have drafted a resolution that would extend the authorization until July 10, 2023.
Lebanon's LGBTQ community, long among the most vocal and visible in the Middle East, has been targeted by a crackdown that has seen queer activists harassed and Pride gatherings cancelled.
It has heaped pressure on a community that already lost many of its safe spaces in the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion and been depleted by an exodus driven by Lebanon's severe economic crisis.
An icy chill went through the crisis-tested community when the interior ministry in a June 24 letter instructed security forces to clamp down on events "promoting sexual perversion".
Iran's Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreign diplomats including a Briton, accusing them of "spying", the Fars news agency and state television said Wednesday.
But the British government quickly denied that any of its personnel had been arrested, describing the reports as "completely false".
The developments coincide with heightening tensions between Tehran and world powers over long-stalled attempts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal and a recent uptick in confirmed detentions of Western nationals in the country.
